Her Sister's Secrets Read online

  But if it seemed likely that Violet’s death had something to do with what she’d done with Annalise and James, well, then I needed to know that. And I probably would need to leave the house, because it wouldn’t have anything to do with the drama here.

  “Hello?” a woman’s voice answered.

  “Um, hi, could I speak to Dana Regal?” I said.

  “This is she.”

  “Hi,” I said. “It’s Emilia Farrow. You sent me a message on my blog asking if I’d call you?”

  “Oh, Emilia,” she said. “So nice to hear from you. Yeah, I just wanted to tell you how sorry I was about Violet. What a terrible thing to have happened.”

  “Uh, thanks,” I said.

  “We would have come to the funeral, but we didn’t know. I don’t keep up with the obituaries, I suppose, and we didn’t know to start worrying or looking until she didn’t show up to see James.”

  “What?” I said. “Violet came to see James?”

  “Oh, yeah. For the past three years or so,” said Dana. “Nearly every week. Sometimes every two weeks, but she came by all the time. James loved seeing her.”

  I was quiet. That didn’t sound like the Violet I knew. The Violet I knew had run from all of it. It was the reason I’d thrown it in her face after my mother’s funeral. Which was three years ago, now that I thought about it. I wondered if something I’d said to her had prompted her to try to make amends.

  “Emilia?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I guess I didn’t realize that Violet had…” I wasn’t sure how to put it. “It’s only that the last time I saw you, I didn’t get the impression you would allow her to go and see James.”

  “Oh, well, that’s been years, hasn’t it?” she said. “But I suppose you’re right. Directly after it happened, I wanted someone to blame, and Violet was driving the car. And the way I figured it, James shouldn’t have even been in that car with her. He should have been with his girlfriend, Annalise. So, yes, I blamed her. But, in the end, it really was an accident. I mean, that tree fell in the middle of the road, and she couldn’t have stopped in time. And the fact that James was so badly injured and she wasn’t, well, that was down to the fact that he had chosen not to wear a seatbelt. So, I guess, I’ve let a lot of it go.”

  Wow. I was stunned. Speechless.

  I thought that Dana would subscribe to the idea that it was all Violet’s fault. If Violet hadn’t started making out with Annalise’s boyfriend at that party, there wouldn’t have been a big argument between Annalise and James, and Violet and James wouldn’t have left.

  They’d all been seventeen. And James had been badly injured. A spine injury that confined him to a wheelchair. Not only that, he’d suffered irreparable brain damage that left him with the mind of a six-year-old or something. His mother had to care for him full time. He hadn’t finished high school. His whole life and future had been cut off and destroyed. His mother had been robbed of her son as she knew him. To think that she could let that go, it boggled my mind. I wasn’t sure I believed her.

  “You know, if she’d come by even a year earlier, I wouldn’t have let her even step foot in my house,” Dana was saying. “But James never stopped asking about her. It was something that seemed burned into his head. He remembered what had happened, but his ability to understand it all, it was warped. He’s become… childlike, I guess. Some part of him had latched onto her. ‘Wonder if Violet would like that,’ he’d say. ‘I wonder if Violet would come to dinner if we asked.’ Just on and on. It used to make me crazy.” She let out a little laugh. “Anyway, uh, then three years ago, she shows up, and she says she wants to see James, and she wants to do what she could to make up for what happened. For some reason, I simply believed her. She seemed different. I guess you two had just lost your mother?”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “Well, that must have been hard,” said Dana. “Maybe that changed something inside her, I don’t know. But she would come by every week, like I said, and she would spend an hour or two with James, and he simply adored seeing her again.” Dana sniffled.

  I felt myself suddenly being overcome by tears as well. “I’m glad she did that.”

  “Yes, me too,” said Dana. “It brought some closure.”

  “But how is James?” I said. “I mean, now that she’s not coming. If he was so preoccupied with her before—”

  “Well, it’s hard,” said Dana, and now her voice was thick with emotion. “I don’t know if he really understands what happened to her. He still asks for her, and then I have to explain it to him again. That’s awful.”

  “I’m sure it is,” I said.

  “Anyway, if we had known, we would have come to pay our condolences,” Dana said. “I wanted you to know how much she meant to James, and I really appreciated what she did to make up for that accident. She knew that I didn’t blame her anymore. I suppose I just wanted you to know that too.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “She was a good person, your sister.”

  “Yeah, she was.” Maybe I didn’t even realize how good. Maybe I had seen the impulsive young girl who made mistakes and took risks and threw herself into this new life planning these parties. Maybe I had been too hard on her.

  It was sad, I realized, that Dana Regal could forgive my sister for what she’d done in high school, and I’d used the incident to drive a wedge between us. I’d used it to hurt her. I hadn’t been there for her. I hadn’t supported her. She’d had to go through all of this alone.

  When I got off the phone with Dana Regal, I had another long, long cry.

  I missed Violet so damned much.

  * * *

  “Gosh, it’s so nice to meet you,” said Sage Lucas, shaking my hand. We were meeting in her office in downtown Sarasota. It had been my sister’s office, but now Sage had taken it over. She had been Violet’s assistant at her event planning business. Sage was starting her own event-planning business, using Violet’s contacts.

  I had given my blessing to this enterprise, considering I had no claim on it, and Sage had helped Violet build the business up. I didn’t see any reason for her not to continue in Violet’s footsteps. She wasn’t using my sister’s name or anything, so it wasn’t as if she was encroaching.

  “Before,” Sage continued, “you said that you didn’t need to come see the office space or anything, and I thought that we’d cleared up any legal issues, so—”

  “It’s not about the business,” I said. I looked around the office space, which was elegantly decorated, the kind of place that would put wealthy clients at ease. “Like I said, I’m happy for you to use Violet’s contacts. You earned that. You worked with her for years.”

  “Well, she was a hard taskmaster, that’s for sure.” Sage chuckled. “I mean, it was amazing that we did it all, the two of us. And I think she only hired me because she literally could not do everything herself. She still did the work of four women.”

  I laughed too. “That sounds like Violet.”

  Sage gestured for me to sit down in a plush chair in front of her desk. “So, what can I do for you, then?”

  I sat. “I guess I wanted to ask some questions about Violet. She and I weren’t as close as I would have liked toward the end of her life, and I just want to know more about her.”

  “Oh,” said Sage. “Like what?”

  “I don’t know.” I folded my hands into my lap. “I guess there’s a lot I want to know. What did she like to do for fun? Where did she go after work? Did she have any enemies? Who were her friends?”

  “I don’t know that kind of stuff.” Sage gave me an apologetic smile. “Violet was really driven, and all she ever wanted to talk about when we were working, was, you know, work. She didn’t let me in to her private life. To be honest, I don’t know that she had much of one. I think she was consumed by the event planning. What she put into it, she was easily working eighty-hour weeks. And that would be an easy week, you know? She was always working. I don’t even know if she even ha
d time for friends.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, that’s kind of what I figured.”

  “Sorry I can’t be more helpful.”

  “I’ve heard rumors that she was involved with Drew Wainwright? She didn’t talk about that with you?”

  “Drew Wainwright? Really?” Sage laughed. “That is insane. I thought he was engaged that crazy Tania woman.”

  So, then, Violet had kept that quiet. Or… and this was another thought, what if Drew had made it up? I didn’t know why he’d do that, but I had no confirmation of the relationship, did I?

  No, Tania had known. I supposed it was real. And Drew’s reaction to finding out Violet was his sister seemed genuine enough.

  I folded my hands together. “Were there people who didn’t like her because of her work ethic? Do you guys have competitors in the business who were jealous of her success?”

  “Honestly? There was no one on her level. People didn’t even try. She was a superhero. I know that I’ll never be what she was. Even with her contacts and the things she taught me, I can’t be Violet Farrow. She was unique, and she loved what she did so much.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “She had this tendency to throw herself into things with a lot of enthusiasm.”

  Sage smiled. “Exactly.”

  We both smiled at each other, and then we looked away.

  “You know, Emilia, I’m so sorry,” Sage said softly.

  “Me too,” I said.

  * * *

  Jonah Fletcher was on my front porch. He waved at me as I walked down from the driveway.

  Great. I didn’t know what to say to him. I still didn’t know if he was a threat. Maybe I was overreacting about the gun thing. On the other hand, Phin seemed to think Jonah was bad news too, and Phin had really good instincts.

  I didn’t wave back.

  He met me at the top of the steps. “I came by to see you, but you weren’t here. I was just about to leave when I heard your car pull up. Perfect timing.”

  “Yeah,” I said, forcing myself to smile.

  “Listen, I was coming to see if we couldn’t work out a time in your schedule for dinner.”

  My lips parted. Well, he was suddenly pretty persistent, wasn’t he? I eyed him. “Why do you want to have dinner with me?”

  He took a step back. “Um, am I supposed to infer from that you don’t want to have dinner with me?”

  Should I agree? Get rid of him once and for all? Or would I only end up pissing him off? Maybe he really was a crazy psychopath who wanted to hunt me down in the wilderness or something. Of course, good luck finding actual wilderness around here.

  I shook my head. “No, that’s not what I said. I just… I’m having trouble figuring you out.”

  “You’re having trouble figuring me out? You happen to be the most mysterious woman I’ve ever met.”

  I laughed. “What?”

  He stepped closer now, and his voice dropped in pitch. “You show up out of nowhere. You’re this no-one food blogger staying in an expensive beach-front home. You’ve got strange ties to the Wainwrights. And then yesterday, you tell me you don’t know who rented this place. So, then why are you staying here? What is this all about? Are you really who you say you are?”

  Oh, okay. Well, he was kind of intense and, um, that voice of his… It had a rumbly timbre that was really working for him. Also, he was kind of scary. I couldn’t tell if my pulse was starting to race because he freaked me out or because I kind of wanted him to kiss me.

  And he was practically close enough to do that.

  Back up, I said to myself. Back away from scary guy with a gun. He’s saying this stuff to throw you off and undermine your confidence. Even Phin said you couldn’t trust him.

  I didn’t back up. I stood my ground.

  He took another step towards me. His voice dropped even lower. “What are the odds that you’re going to answer any of my questions?”

  I licked my lips.

  His gaze narrowed in on my mouth.

  I swallowed. Now I was looking at his mouth. He had nice lips. There were shaped like a bow, and they looked soft.

  His face started to dip down.

  And I slammed my eyes closed, and I put my hands on his shoulders, and I brought up my mouth, and…

  Kissing.

  Oh, Jesus Christ, what the hell was I doing?

  His lips were soft.

  I broke away. My heart was beating really fast now, and a little bit of sweat had broken out on the back of my neck. That was stupid, Emilia, I said to myself.

  Jonah cleared his throat, looking flustered. “Sorry, I didn’t…”

  “I really don’t know about this dinner thing,” I said. “I’m not sure if I actually do have a lot of time, because my schedule is actually pretty booked, and I think I might…” I sucked in a breath. “You should probably go.”

  He dragged a hand over his chin. “Are you with the CIA? No. Maybe you’re a Russian spy pretending to be American. Have you seen that show?”

  “I’m not a spy,” I said. I regarded him. “Are you a spy?”

  “Would you feel more comfortable if it wasn’t dinner at my house?” He raised his eyebrows. “How about a restaurant? Someplace public? Would your schedule open up then?”

  I shifted on my feet. My mouth was dry, and I tried to swallow and couldn’t. “I’m really just busy.”

  He nodded. “Uh huh.”

  “You know, right now? Not a good time for me. I’ve got to, um, wash my hair. It really needs it.” I inched my way across the porch toward my door, not taking my eyes off him. “I don’t mean to be abrupt or anything, but we’ll have to save this for another time.”

  He jammed his hands into his pockets, looked me over, and bobbed his head. Then he turned and walked down the steps and back onto the beach. “Take care of yourself, Emilia,” he called over his shoulder.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “Um, hi, Oliver,” I said into my phone. Why the hell was Officer Oliver Patterson calling me?

  “Hey there, Emilia,” he said on the other end of the phone. “Is this a bad time?”

  It wasn’t. Not exactly. I was standing out on my porch, looking out at the ocean and wondering how the heck my life had gotten so complicated. “I guess I’m only surprised to hear from you.”

  “Oh, I see. Well, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “Did you find out something else about Violet?”

  “Unfortunately, no,” he said. “Sorry to give you that sort of impression. I was actually just calling to check up on you. Have you received any more communication from the person who sent you that letter?”

  I hesitated.

  “Emilia?”

  “No,” I said, deciding not to tell him. I had gotten this far without the police. I didn’t need them now. Besides, Oliver hadn’t seemed very interested in believing me thus far.

  “Is that the ocean I hear in the background?”

  Damn it. “What if it is? We live near the ocean, don’t we? Is it a crime for me to go to the beach?”

  “No reason to be defensive,” he said.

  “Listen, it’s nice of you to call and everything, but—”

  “You went to that address, didn’t you? You’re there, at this very moment, aren’t you?”

  I sighed. You know, maybe he was actually kind of good at that cop thing, figuring stuff out he wasn’t supposed to. “I’m fine. Nothing bad has happened to me. I’m not in danger.” I didn’t think. “The person who sent me the letter is letting me stay at this address, and they gave me a bunch of clothes to wear and set up lunch dates for me with my mother’s old co-workers.”

  “Whoa, hold on.” Oliver laughed. “You’re going to have to tell me everything now.”

  “Look, I don’t want to file a report,” I said. “I only want to find my sister’s murderer. And the longer I’m here, the more stuff I find out.”

  “Like what? Talk to me. I can help you.”

  I bit down on my lip. And then, I caved
. There wasn’t any reason to keep it all to myself. I started telling Oliver everything, from the texts from the Host, to the revelations about Roman, to his falling to his death. For some reason, I left out all the stuff about Jonah Fletcher, though, and I don’t really know why. Maybe it was because of the gun, the one real piece of dangerousness I’d seen. Oliver had been so cautious about my safety. I didn’t want him to have an excuse to tell me to leave.

  He was probably going to do that anyway, though. Because he’d say that I should leave this to the authorities, and I couldn’t do that.

  So, when I finished talking, I ended with that. “And I know you’re going to tell me I need to leave the house, and that I need to report all this to the police, and let you guys handle it, but I can’t do that. Because you guys already botched finding this out before. I don’t mean that to be offensive or anything. It’s just that I don’t think you’re invested enough to leave it to you.”

  He was quiet.

  “Are you there?” I said.

  “That’s, uh…” He let out an audible breath. “That’s a lot of crazy stuff.”

  “It is,” I said.

  “You know, unfortunately, it’s not really evidence of anything, though.”

  “What?” I said. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, maybe you were getting close to being able to build a case against Roman Wainwright,” he said. “And that could even maybe still be done, although, with his being dead, it’s not going to be anyone’s priority. We can’t lock him up anymore.”

  “You think he killed her too.”

  “No, I mean, a case against him for rape,” said Oliver. “You don’t have any evidence that he hurt your sister. I mean, you have no evidence at all that she’s even been murdered. You may think that you’ve found out some things, and you have, but none of it is really changing the case, not from the perspective of the police.”

  I groaned. “Seriously? You don’t think there’s anything here?”

  “I’m not saying it’s nothing,” he said. “I’m sure it’s all very important to you. This is your sister. This is her history. It matters to you and to the people who cared about her. But without evidence, the police won’t reopen the case.”